50 . . . And Just Getting Started!

I was blessed on Saturday night to get to go to the 50th wedding anniversary celebration of some special Creekers - James & Lynda Stayton!

Wow, 50 years! What an awesome model for the rest of us! I told James & Lynda what an encouragement they are in our lives and the lives of so many others. You should be so very thankful if you know them (and proud of them) . . . and let them know!

(Obviously I have my eyes closed in the pic because I'm praying that I will make it 50!)

Praying . . .

In thinking towards the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, I asked a couple of our Prayer Team Leaders to share their heart on prayer and the NDP.

Here is what Lynda Stayton shared with me to share with you:

After reading Pastor John’s blog regarding the National Day of Prayer I opened my bible to the theme verse for this year - “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. Psalm 28:7. “---- I am helped”. If ever there was a time our Nation needs to be “helped” it is now.

As I read these verses I noticed on that page and on the opposite page in my bible were a number of verses where the Psalmist is crying out to God for His help, His mercy.

“Hear my voice when I call, O LORD; be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of You, “Seek His face! Your face, LORD, I will seek.” Psalm 27: 7-8

“To you I call O LORD my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if You remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit. Hear my cry for mercy as I call to You for help, as I lift up my hands toward Your Most Holy Place.” Psalm 28:1-2

“Praise be to the LORD, for He has heard my cry for mercy.” Psalm 28:6

We have an opportunity Thursday to join our voices with millions of others who feel this is a critical time to be calling out to God on behalf of our nation, for its health, its leaders and its future.

God’s promise: 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”. God’s answer depends on our repentance and our prayer.

I urge you, if at all possible, to join with others in our city at one of the locations Pastor John listed in his blog. If that is not possible, please do not let the day go by without taking a few minutes, knowing that your prayer along with millions of others, is going up as sweet incense before the Lord our God who is sovereign and in whom we put our trust.

Will it make a difference if we pray? If we pray, God promises to answer. If we don’t pray, He promises nothing. We can choose to ignore this day and treat it like any other. But I ask you, should we? Dare we?